The T series is what you are looking for.
Try find any laptop of that size with 32gb ram and quad core option. It doesn't exist.
But the Thermal Restrictions of the quadcore are imo manageable aswell, as they only have to dissipate about 20W of heat more at peak. The Alienware 13 mostly needs the additional cooling performance for its beefy graphics processor, which is not necessary for most dev use-cases.
The smallest T-Series that would fit the bill is the 14 inch ThinkPad T470. For some reason i cannot fathom the T470s only supports up to 24gb of ram, as per their press release.
The T470 is needlessly heavy, has more ports than I need and is larger than I want.
13 inch is my personal maximum, i'd rather have something between 10-12 inch. I'm lovin the dimensions of my Surface Pro 2, i just need something with a quad-core and more ram. I can compromise at the quadcore, but it boggles the mind that theres nothing below 14inch with 32gb. The Alienware 13 is the only machine that currently fits the bill, but that graphics chip and ridiculous chassis makes it unnecessary heavy.
That's a hell of a lot of extra heat in a thin laptop. Especially if a big chunk of the market values silence. An office full of laptops all sounding like airplanes isn't ideal.